THEATRE REVIEWS

Out of Order is a political farce which follows the consequences of a secret liaison between Richard Willey (Giles Watling) Labour MP and Miss Worthington (Tina Hall) Michael Howard's secretary.

The storyline moves at an increasing pace with gags in nearly every sentence of the script. The obvious humour followed the structure of a dated sitcom, but was brought up to date with many references from recent political events such as the Butler report.

The ten strong cast were all familiar faces. Paul Shane and Vicki Michelle were probably the most recognisable stars, but their parts were small in comparison to others. David Callister gave a good performance as personal, parliamentary secretary George Pigden, delivering his lines with energy in a style that took command of the stage. All the actors seemed to be having a good time, but at times their own laughter became too much and gave them irritating edges which began to grate after a while.

Mention must go to the director, Ian Dickens, and set designer, David North, as the setting of suite 648 at the Westminster hotel was very convincing, with actors needing to exit and enter in a number of various methods, for example the dodgy sash window out to the balcony where all the problems began.

The play would keep fans of Hi-De-Hi and Allo Allo happy, but personally the humour was a bit too pantomime for us. However, we were surrounded by raucous laughter so it obviously appealed to the majority of the audience. © SG

“Out of Order” is in Sheffield on the 27th July to 31st July, 2004 and then continues a nationwide tour.